Political commentary from the LA Times

Rush Limbaugh is in a funk and someone's gonna pay

January 22, 2008 | 6:02
am

Good news for Rush-haters.

Not only has the controversial conservative radio talk-show host got a sore throat, but he's anguishing over the inadequacy he sees in the current field of Republican presidential candidates. You can actually hear the pain, the mounting impatience, the frustration in his voice. It's kinda sad, if you believe in talk-radio.

Monday on the air, he'd had enough of these impure candidates and enough of all these questions about his endorsement and when it would come and how he'd make his decision and he just blurted out to Jim in Kansas City and a few million others listening in: "I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee."

WHAT?!

Across the country, people were dropping their coffee cups, choking on sandwiches, fainting and driving off the road. The king of conservative talk-radio not supporting the Republican nominee? Was Rush Limbaugh pulling....

"And I never thought that I would say that in my life. This stuff is very tough."

No kidding. Who'd a thought? It's tough enough just listening to him go through this, let alone live it like he is. What's a genuine broadcast conservative icon to do? "You don't have a genuine down-the-list conservative," he noted. So, he advised, a Republican voter must look at "variables."

For example, Rush said: "It's easier for me to support a Romney than a McCain, for example. Because I believe his conversion is genuine. And he's not lying about his past positions. He's not trying to tell people they're wrong when they assess his past positions. He explains why he changed his mind."

Rush would just like someone in the GOP field to display some real take-charge leadership. "These front-runners want it," he complained, "because it's their turn. We tried that in '96 with Bob Dole and now they're running the same scenario [from] 2000."

He said many Republicans now favor John McCain simply because he endured a crushing loss and felt cheated in the 2000 South Carolina primary. Rush indicated hoarsely that was not a good enough reason to support the co-author of McCain-Feingold, in Rush's not-so-humble opinion, which is, after all, what we have all come to expect when we listen to him.

Finally, Rush was running out of time. "I'm telling ya," he said, "it's gonna come down to which guy do we dislike the least. And that's not necessarily good."

Thankfully, it was time for a station break to give Rush's listeners a chance to catch their breath, maybe grab a lozenge themselves and at least begin the recovery process.